When we think about preserving cultural memories we automatically conjure up in our minds images of documents, books, photographs, monuments and artefacts that recount the story of past civilisations and that may be stored in dusty archives and museums.
Pottery and ceramic pieces can be filed under such records, even though, unfortunately, they do not get the attention they deserve especially from younger generations of museum visitors.
Yet, the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, has got a surprise in store for many of us – a new exhibition that, launching tomorrow, will change our collective perception of ceramic pieces.
"The 20th Century" is indeed an investigation of the main trends and styles that marked 100 years of changes in art, culture and society, through beautiful and fragile objects.
Co-curated by Karin Gaillard and Frans Leidelmeijer, the event is organised in a chronological order, but it cleverly recounts key historical moments juxtaposing 400 ceramic objects (divided in thematical sections) with works from the fine and applied arts, photographs, film footage and furniture, a jukebox and even an original caravan from 1960.
In this way the ceramic pieces become more relevant and engaging to visitors belonging to different age groups who will find it easier to locate the objects in time and relate to them.
The unprecedented global developments of the early decades brought new inventions such as the telegraph and the aircraft (see the picture of KLM plane Douglas DC-3 PH-IF "Woodpecker"), celebrated through rare pictures from those times.
As women freed themselves from their corsets, they also found new careers and roles in society.
These events are marked by ceramic pieces decorated with dynamic silhouettes that open up comparisons with the swimwear of those times and by Eta Lempke's figures of sporting and working women or of a stylised woman aviator.
Exoticism – a theme that fascinated and inspired many Western artists and designers – is explored via patterns borrowed from Indonesian batik fabrics and replicated on vases from the Plateelbakkerij Zuid-Holland earthenware factory.
After the wars, the 1950s saw a rise in prosperity: the lifestyles of the families in those years is analysed through teenagers' bedrooms, furnished with rattan seats, but also with "teenage ceramics" such as the "Brigitte Bardot heads" decorating their bedroom walls.
As the Space Age approached, robot figures by Hans de Jong and Tiko's minimalist rocket vases became popular.
Bourgeois attitudes were forgotten in the 1970s, and political commentary and protest became the dominant tones in art as sybolised in the exhibition by "Consumer Society" (Consumptiemaatschappij), a ceramic pig Pieter Groot made around 1970, and the military satchel by progressive artist Diet Wiegman.
The unprecedented prosperity in the 1990s gave rise to individualism and the era of the ego, which was also reflected in ceramic art, as proved by the statue "Golden Voice I" by Adriaan Rees and the story of the late Mathilde Willink, notorious and extravagant wife of the famous realistic Dutch painter Carel Willink, a media phenomenon who favoured in her life clothes by Dutch fashion designer Fong Leng.
The narrative form and the objects and materials chosen by the curators to tell the story of the 20th century work pretty well and the pieces on display actually introduce visitors to new ways to create natural links between trends and historical events.
Indeed specific connections between historical and social developments become inseparable and naturally linked when an object is studied in a wider context.
For example, there may have been no coincidence between ceramists using "crater glazes" and the advent of the Space Age, but it is true that a huge quantity of ceramics with holiday scenes started appearing in the 1960s when the holiday culture had started to emerge.
Many of the pieces included – ranging from avant-garde to mass-produced objects – have not been seen for years, because they were not suitable for other art or historical exhibitions at the Princessehof, so this is a great chance to rediscover them or see them for the first time. 
Rescued in this exhibition these pieces and the other materials featured will open interesting interpretations for visitors, re-structuring the conventional linear memory to unfold innovative associations and comparisons.
"The 20th Century", Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics, 5th September 2015 – 3rd July 2016, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.
Image credits for this post
Photography and concept Heleen Haijtema. Dorothea Roth, vase, 1970-1975, Roth Eberhahn West Germany. Collection Petra Mesken.
1900-1929 Section: Elephant, detail
Description: Elephant, 1920-1930 Manufacture de faience d'art de Saint-Clément Saint-Clément, design Charles Lemanceau, pottery
French loan Leidelmeijer, Amsterdam
Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg
1900-1929 Section: Vase with Insulinde décor
Theme: Exoticism
Description: Vase with Archipelago décor, circa 1920, Plateelbakkerij South Holland, Gouda pottery
Collection Ceramics Museum Princessehof, Leeuwarden
Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg
1900-1929 Section: "Sun and Summer" Vase
Theme: Woman
Description: "Sun and Summer" Vase, 1925, Plateelbakkerij Zenith, Gouda, design Toon van Ham, pottery
Collection Museum Gouda Gouda
Photo: Tom Haartsen
1900-1929 Section: Three women in bathing suits
Theme: Woman
Description: Three women in bathing suits with stockings and shoes running on the beach. United States of America, 1925.
Credit Line: National Archives / Collection Spaarnestad / Life / Photographer Unknown
1900-1929 Section: KLM plane 'Woodpecker'
Theme: Technology
Description: Airlines aircraft. The KLM plane Douglas DC-3 PH-IF "Woodpecker" at the airport of Lydda (Palestine) during refueling [September-October] 1937 [One of the last pictures of the plane before it crashed on October 6th at Palembang, Dutch Indies].
Credit Line: National Archives / Collection Spaarnestad / Life / W. Zadek
1900-1929 Section: Female pilot
Theme: Woman
Description: Female pilot, 1930-1935, Plateelbakkerij South Holland, Gouda, design Eta Lempke, pottery
Loan Collection Meentwijck
Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg
1930-1955 Section: Man and woman looking out over new district, Amsterdam
Theme: Reconstruction
Description: Man and woman looking out over new district, Amsterdam
Photo: © Eli gentle / MAI
1930-1955 Section: TV set
Theme: Reconstruction
Description: TV-set, circa 1955, Craft Volendam, pottery
Collection Ceramics Museum Princessehof, Leeuwarden
Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg
1956-1979 Section: Moonlandin
Theme: Robots and Space
Credit Line: Aphelleon / Shutterstock
1956-1979 Section: 2 Robots
Theme: Robots and Space
Description left: Robot, automatic, 1961, Hans de Jong, stoneware
Description Right: Robot, transparency, in 1961, Hans de Jong, stoneware
Collection Ceramics Museum Princessehof, Leeuwarden
Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg
1956-1979 Section: Rocket vase
Theme: Robots and Space
Description: Vases in the form of a missile and a rocket, 1950-1960, Plateelbakkerij Tiko, Gouda pottery
Loan Collection Meentwijck
Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg
1956-1979 Section: Boy and girl with motorbike
Theme: Youth Culture
Description: A boy and a girl at Café Capri in Lombard Lane in Haarlem, illustrating a magazine article about the ideal son.
Credit Line: National Archives / Collection Spaarnestad / Peike Reintjens
1956-1979 Section: Wall ornament
Theme: Youth Culture
Description: Wall ornament, Circa 1960, Veccola
Loan Wilma Cliff House
Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg
1956-1979 Section: Wall decoration inspired by the beach
Theme: Holidays
Description: Wall decoration, circa 1960, ES Keramik, West Germany, pottery
Loan P. P. Mesken
Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg
1956-1979 Section: Sixties caravan
Theme: Holidays
Photo credits: www.artbrokerdesign.com
1956-1979 Section: Military Satchel by Diet Wiegman
Theme: Engagement
Collection Ceramics Museum Princessehof, Leeuwarden
Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg
1956-1979 Section: Consumer society by Pieter Groot
Theme: Engagement
Collection Ceramics Museum Princessehof, Leeuwarden
Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg
1980-2000 Section: Golden Voice 1 + 1980-2000 by Adriaan Rees
Theme: Individualism
Ceramics Museum Princessehof, Leeuwarden; Loan Association of Friends Princessehof Ceramics Museum.
Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg
1980-2000 Section: Mathilde Willink
Theme: Individualism
Description: Portrait of Mathilde Willink with makeup and wearing a creation by Fong Leng. Netherlands, 1970-1980.
Credit Line: National Archives / Collection Spaarnestad / Harry Pot
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Related articles
Rispondi